How could emotional intelligence be implemented?
Architectures for recognizing and generating emotion are typically somewhat complex and don't generally have short descriptions, so it's probably better to reference the literature rather than give a misleading soundbite:
Some of the early work in affective computing was done by Rosalind W. Picard. There is a research group at MIT specializing in this area.
Some of the more developed architectural ideas are due to Marvin Minsky.
A pre-publication draft of his book, The Emotion Machine, is available via Wikipedia.
Emotional intelligence would certainly seem to be a necessary component of passing the Turing test - indeed, in the original Turing test essay in Computing Machinery and Intelligence implied some degree of &quot;Theory of Mind&quot; about Mr. Pickwick's preferences:

Yet Christmas is a Winter’s day, and I do not think Mr. Pickwick would mind the comparison.